


Falling

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Feels Like Heaven [2]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 11:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5783443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You're not the boss of me, Edward.” Olivia took her medicine.  “And you're not a doctor.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling

“Oh my god, Liv, are you alright?” Lucy stood up from the couch as the sergeant walked into her apartment.

“I'm fine, I'm going to be fine.”

“You don’t look fine to me.”

Olivia had bruises on her face and wasn’t doing the best job of walking. Another cop was with her, one that Lucy hadn’t seen before…he was likely not a member of her squad. Liv’s clothes were disheveled and she was clearly in pain.

“There was a scuffle tonight.” Liv said as Ed helped her over to the loveseat. “I got into it with a perpetrator.”

“She was shoved down a flight of steps.” Ed said.

“It was only about 6 steps.” 

“More like 15 but who’s counting.”

She looked up at Ed. “It was 15…are you serious?”

“Give or take, yeah.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Lucy asked.

“Yes, you can go home now. Thank you so much for staying. I know I ask you so often and I'm sorry…”

“It’s time and a half, plus Noah is a joy to be around. I really don’t mind; after he passed out I was studying.”

“He's alright?” Liv asked.

“He's fine. Usually he tries to wait up for you but he didn’t make it tonight. Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do?”

“Yes. I'm going to need you here regular time in the morning. I probably won't be going in but will surely need help wrangling Noah for daycare.”

“Of course.” Lucy nodded as she picked up her backpack. Then she turned to Ed. “I don’t think we've ever met, I'm Lucy Huston.”

“Ed Tucker, nice to meet you.” Ed shook her hand.

“Forgive my bad manners. Ed is a Lieutenant with the NYPD and an all-around pain in the ass. Surely you'll never see him again.”

“That’s just the pain meds talking.” Ed said. “OK, she's mostly right…I can be an all-around pain in the ass. Some find it charming.”

“Well she's going to be OK here with you, Lieutenant Tucker?” Lucy asked.

“She’ll be fine. It was a long night, she’ll probably pass out in the next 20 minutes or so.”

“Alright. Goodnight, Liv.”

“Night Lucy.”

After the nanny left, Liv struggled to get up from the couch. Ed helped her and then she disappeared into Noah’s room for a while. He went and poured her a glass of water from the bottle in the refrigerator. Then he grabbed the pills from the bag they got at the hospital. It had been a long night for all involved. 

Corrupt cops made Ed’s blood boil. He was expecting gunfire, those kind of bad guys didn’t usually go down without a fight. They were dealing with corrupt cops, sex trafficking, and pimps. It was the kind of shit the press lived for. It was also the kind of thing where cops could lose their lives. 

Kevlar, helmets, SWAT…they infiltrated mob deep. There was screaming, running, chasing, shots fired, and some hand to hand combat. It had been a fellow officer, though Ed hated to even think of him that way, who shoved Olivia down the flight of stairs as he tried to escape. She got a few shots off, which was the excuse Ed made to follow her to the hospital. He would need her statement and service weapon.

“They only gave you Motrin.” Ed said as she hobbled her way back into the living room. He was holding the bottle of pills in his hand. “It says you can take them every 8 hours, a thousand milligrams. I would think the push you got would at least warrant some Percocet.”

“I don’t like narcotics.” Liv sat back on the loveseat grimacing in pain. She had three bruised ribs, her shoulder had to be popped back into place, and her ankle suffered a sprain. They thought her arm might be broken but it was just mangled. 

At the end of the day, she was going to live. The job was done and Liv would be fine with proper rest. When was the last time she got proper rest she had no idea. “I need to have all my faculties with an infant to care for.”

“The doctors said 7 to 10 days off your feet.” He poured a pill into her hand and then gave her another for good measure.

“I just don’t know how that’s possible. My squad is a virtual skeleton crew. Nick is gone, we have no captain, no lieutenant, and now we’re going to be without a sergeant. It’s getting warmer out and crime is going to rise…the most I could justify is three days.”

“Make it four and then strap yourself to a desk for a week. There are loopholes but you're not going to get away with no time off. You got hit pretty hard tonight.”

“You're not the boss of me, Edward.” Olivia took her medicine. “And you're not a doctor.”

“I can't be concerned about the welfare of a fellow officer?” he asked.

“I'm fine.”

“He shoved you down a flight of stairs Liv. He was trying to kill you.”

Liv sighed but didn’t look at him. She knew Ed was looking at her but she didn’t want to look back. The truth is that Marcel, the cop she had the tussle with, didn’t exactly care whether Liv lived or died in that stairwell tonight. He jumped her like a fuckin maniac, attempted to pummel her, and when that didn’t work, he just shoved. 

Liv had no idea how she didn’t break her neck or back falling down those hard concrete steps. It was nothing but luck that she wasn’t severely injured or killed. But she wasn’t so it was best not to let the worse case scenarios rule her mind. It looked Ed was going to do that for a little while.

“I'm fine.” She put her hand on his knee.

“How about just for shits and giggles we use another adjective.” Ed put his hand on top of hers.

“I'm…hungry.”

“Cute.” He smirked.

“No seriously, I'm starving. I probably shouldn’t have taken the Motrin on an empty stomach.”

“Shit, I wasn’t even thinking. Do you have something in the fridge you can eat or should I order something?”

“There's lunchmeat in the fridge but I want real food. And you need to eat too, Ed. You should be starving by now.”

This is what Liv did. She went into mother hen mode so that people wouldn’t do it to her. So Ed nodded, got up, and grabbed a menu from the second drawer in the kitchen. Pizza might be good but dumplings were probably better. 

There was this great Chinese place in Tribeca that specialized in dumplings. He called in an order for 10 seafood and 10 regular along with a pint of vegetable fried rice. Liv gave the thumbs up as she stretched out on the loveseat. When he came back into the living room, Ed smiled at her. He grabbed one of the pillows and sat down on the floor.

“Oh no, Ed, I could've moved. You don’t have to sit on the floor.”

“I'm fine, and I'm sure you need to stretch out.” He rubbed her thigh. “I'm not going to ask you how you're feeling.”

“Good. Should I ask you how you’re feeling? You didn’t have the best night either.”

“I'm pissed off. I feel this combination of anger and grief.” Ed replied. “I'm pushing that all aside because I'm here with you and when I'm with you I don’t want that shit foremost in my mind. It’s not going to change anything. Tomorrow, maybe the day after, I’ll have to face it all head on with my chin up. Tonight I just want to be with you…eat Chinese food and maybe watch some baseball.”

“You're in luck,” Liv grabbed the remote from the coffee table. She had so much to say, his words knocked her backward, but she handed it to him. “I have the package where I get all the games.”

“Seriously?”

“Baseball relaxes me sometimes. I also watch obscure sports, at least obscure on the network channels, but baseball is the common sport I like.”

Ed smiled. He turned on the TV, knowing exactly what buttons to push since he had the same cable and the same sports package. Intra-league play was still going on; Kansas City was playing Minnesota. Moving his pillow down some, Ed went toward the top of the loveseat where Liv was laying. She turned on her side and wrapped an arm around his neck. 

The Motrin was working but also tearing up her stomach. She couldn’t wait for the food to get there. It was probably a good idea for them to take this party into the bedroom. She had a television in there, at Cassidy’s insistence when they were still living together, so they could still watch. She moved her arm around, her hand rubbing the nape of his neck. Then she ran it up his nape and caressed his hair.

“Mmm, baby.” Ed closed his eyes.

“You have a crick in your neck.” Liv moved her hand again. She stroked and massaged the back of his neck.

“You don’t have to…uhhh, mmm, damn that feels good.”

“You were saying.” 

“OK, just a little but I don’t want you catering to me tonight. I should be running you a bath, rubbing you down.”

“Big talk, Lieutenant.” She smiled.

“Oh I've got action, Olivia Benson, and you damn well know it.”

“Blah, blah, blah.” She laughed. 

Ed turned around and kissed her laughter. The kisses got more passionate, he turned his body so he wouldn’t make his neck feel worse by leaning too far backward. When the door buzzed, Ed groaned. He kissed her once more, pulled himself up off the floor, and started walking toward the intercom.

“Do you need some money for the food?” Liv reached into her pocket for her wallet.

“I got it…its fine.”

“Just because you're paying doesn’t mean you're getting laid.”

“I have far better ways of seducing you than excellent Chinese.” Ed said, opening the door for the delivery guy. He gave him a good tip and then carried the food into the kitchen. “Do you want to try both kinds of dumplings?”

“Absolutely. Plates are in the cabinet right by the fridge.” 

It took a minute but Liv got into a comfortable sitting position and then stood up. 1600 milligrams of Motrin or not, the ankle was definitely sore. She started hobbling her way toward the bedroom.

“Are we having dinner in bed, Sergeant?” Ed asked.

“It'll be more comfortable in there for all parties I think.”

There was no point in disagreeing. Ed liked Olivia’s bedroom and she definitely needed the rest. He went into the cabinet, got two plates, and made some dinner. There was beer in her refrigerator; he wondered if it was for him. That might have been wishful thinking but Ed didn’t think he’d ever seen Liv drink a beer. 

That didn’t mean she didn’t but he knew she loved wine. The wine rack was filled with all of her favorite reds and whites. Ed wasn’t a wine guy. He loved a cold beer and definitely could get snobby when it came to bourbon. Still, he grabbed two Stella Artois and headed into the bedroom. 

Liv was in the process of getting undressed. She had turned the baseball game on for him. He had to stop in the middle of the floor for just a moment. Standing there, holding the tray with their food on it, Ed kinda lost his breath. 

“Damn.” He mumbled.

“What?” Liv stopped for a moment. She was halfway across the room to her chest of drawers. “Are you alright?”

“You're absolutely beautiful.”

“Shut up.” She replied, continuing to walk.

“Fine.” Ed went over to the bed. “I'm just calling ‘em like I see ‘em. I'm that type of guy.”

“You're something Ed Tucker…I just haven’t put my finger on it yet.”

And it wasn’t as if Liv hadn’t tried. Just recently, completely baffled by what she might be feeling, she actually resorted to making a pro and con list. He was handsome and smart with a killer smile. He was a workaholic who had attempted to pin a murder charge on her. He was so damn good in bed. He was in Internal Affairs. 

He made her tingle. When was the last time a guy really made her tingle? She had no idea why it was Ed and wanted to talk to him about it. Finding the words wasn’t easy. She couldn’t just say ‘you were supposed to be an asshole and I would appreciate if I could mostly dislike you again so the universe can be set straight’. So Liv let it go. 

That was best for tonight and the next little while at least. Tonight she would put on a tee shirt and boxers, have Chinese food, and watch some baseball. Maybe the pain would even subside enough for her to let Ed get to third base later. The bed would definitely not be rocking, as it had on occasion, but Liv needed to relieve some tension. There was always tension when she had a physical confrontation with a suspect. He sensed these things in her, seemed to know what she was feeling and how to accommodate the situation.

“Don’t let your food get cold.” Ed said. He was watching her but didn’t want to invade her space. Most of the time he let Liv come to him. 

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Do you need help getting dressed?”

“Getting me undressed is usually more of your thing isn't it, Lieutenant?” she asked.

“That’s a question you and I both already know the answer to.”

***


End file.
